The tiger-tamer mauled by one of his own big cats
Roy Horn 1944-2020
Roy Horn, who has died aged 75, was one half of the world famous magic act Siegfried & Roy. Having started on cruise ships, the duo conquered Las Vegas in the 1990s, drawing huge audiences to their spectacular shows, which mixed sequinned glamour and smoke-and-lasers magic tricks with exotic animals. But disaster struck in 2003 when, during a performance at the Mirage hotel casino, a 400lb white tiger named Mantecore pounced on Horn, grabbed him by the neck and dragged his body off stage. Horn had sustained lifethreatening injuries, yet on his way to hospital his main concern was that the animal, which he had raised since birth, should not be harmed. “Mantecore is a great cat,” he reportedly said.
“Make sure no harm comes to Mantecore.”
Later, he insisted that he had had a stroke on stage, and that the tiger was trying to drag him to safety, though this was disputed by animal handlers.
Roy Uwe Ludwig Horn was born in 1944 during an Allied bombing raid on Nordenham, Germany. A lonely child, growing up in a war-scarred country, he spent most of his time with his dog, and helping out at a local zoo. There, he took care of a cheetah, Chico, and developed such a rapport with the animal, he was given it. He was working as a cabin boy on a cruise liner when he met Siegfried Fischbacher, a steward with a sideline in magic tricks.
“If you can make a rabbit and a dove appear, could you do the same with a cheetah?” Horn asked him. He had smuggled Chico on board. The two worked the cheetah into Siegfried’s act – and one of the passengers, who owned a cruise firm of his own, offered them their first proper gig.
By the 1960s, the pair, who were domestic as well as professional partners, were performing in cities across Europe. Chico had been joined by another cheetah, and some flamingos. They made their Vegas debut at the Tropicana in 1967; by the 1980s, they were the highest-paid speciality act to perform on the Strip. Then in 1987, Steve Wynn offered them a $57.5m deal to be the headline act at his new Mirage complex, with its 1,500 seat theatre. Their show featured a mechanical fire-breathing dragon, an elephant that vanished, an exploding 30ft-high pyramid, white lions and tigers and a Michael Jackson theme song. A huge hit, it helped redefine the tawdry Sin City as a glossy, family-friendly destination and, by 2001, was estimated to have grossed $1bn. Horn and Fischbacher built a lavish compound, complete with a 50-metre pool, for their menagerie – which included tigers, jaguars and lions, many of which they’d reared since birth; the pair also gave large sums to conservation charities. Until Mantecore’s attack, on his 59th birthday, Horn claimed never to have suffered so much as a scratch. He had a severe stroke that day, and the duo were forced to retire. Mantecore was retired too, and died in 2014, aged 17.